Management needs to change to view reputation on a similar basis as financial capital

Jan 2016

A review of companies that faced reputational issues in 2015 highlights the ever-increasing risk to shareholder and commercial value. Management discipline needs to change to view reputation on a similar basis as financial capital. Sufficient data and tools are available to enable Boardroom decision-making to manage reputation risk and create strong Reputation Capital buffers and drivers.

A review of 2015 enables us to analyse the cases of UK FTSE 350 companies that faced significant reputation issues over the calendar year. For the purposes of this paper, we have examined five companies we believe would comfortably rank in the top 10 of reputational damage in 2015.We have chosen these not for the purpose of naming and shaming, but to continue our campaign for reputation to become a core element of senior management decision-making. Accurate and accessible data is now available for informed decisions to be made on reputation, along the same lines as they are for other strategic, financial or operational requirements. The provision of such data should encourage senior management to view and manage reputation as they do assets and liabilities – as Reputation Capital.